Trigger Foods and the Women Who Love Them

Ok, I hate to be sexist here, but when it comes to weight issues, I always think of it in terms of women. I know men suffer from weight problems as well, as my gay friend emphasized to me recently, but I still see weight issues as more of a female thing. Maybe it’s because I am married to an impossibly skinny man, who has trouble putting on weight, a concept I STILL can’t grasp after 13 years of marriage. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t hear men whining about weight issues like women do. While I admit that some men have issues with weight, I don’t think they let that define them, like so many women do.

Here’s an example: I recently watched the movie “Couples Retreat” with my husband. There was a scene where the couples were instructed to take off their clothing leaving them in their underwear. All four of the women had perfect bodies as they stood in their bikini looking underwear. The men, however, ranged from not too bad, to downright fat. Not one of them looked hot, like ALL the women did. I pointed this out to my husband, who didn’t find this observation nearly as interesting as I did.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. I have been dieting for the past five weeks. It’s a very restrictive very low calorie diet. I’ve lost weight, which is good, but naturally I am still obsessing on how much I still have to go. But, that’s not the topic of today’s blog. Today’s topic is about trigger foods. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, then you must not be a three time veteran of Weight Watchers like myself. Let me explain via a website called Fitshack:

Trigger foods are any foods that trigger you to overeat and/or binge. They are foods that you just can’t get enough of; one bite is never enough and one helping isn’t enough. Trigger foods can also lead you to overeat on other foods that initially you weren’t even thinking about eating if you feel guilty for eating your trigger foods in the first place! Some people could have just one trigger food category like ice cream, and others could be triggered by anything sweet, salty, or fatty.

So I am asking my readers to come out of the woodwork and tell me what their trigger foods are. I have several, mostly in the “carb” family, while I have friends who are totally addicted to sugar (you KNOW who you are, Susan!) But I will start off the confession:

Hi, my name is Donna, and I am addicted to carbs. Some of the particular items that torment me on a regular basis are as follows, and not necessarily in any specific order:

• French fries
• Chips (preferably the baked variety, but Jalapeno chips are my ultimate favorite, and they don’t come baked)
• Pasta
• Rice
• Mashed Potatoes
• Pizza
• Ice Cream

Truthfully, there are probably 20 others that are just not coming to mind at the moment, but these are the most predominant, for me.

French fries: OMG I could live on nothing BUT! I adore them. I guess I have a love affair with potatoes in general, cause I love potato salad, baked potatoes, twice stuffed potatoes, au gratin potatoes, potato chips. Yeah, perhaps I never met a potato I didn’t like. There’s a burger place that I like to go to JUST for their sweet potato fries. They overcook their burgers (I like my meat still mooing) so I order their chicken sandwich, with melted cheese and then I eat ALL of the sweet potato fries. YUM. My mouth is salivating, just thinking of it.

Chips: I originally listed this as potato chips, but beneath that I included tortilla chips. And you know, let’s not forget those veggie chips I always sample at the “healthier” food stores. I could sit down with a bag of family sized chips and EASILY eat the whole thing. If I manage to save half the bag for the following day, then I am doing well!

Pasta: Oh baby…come to mama!! I love it!! I don’t care if it’s a veggie pasta, white pasta, wheat pasta, any kind will do!! And almost any sauce over it will also do. I don’t discriminate when it comes to food! I will tell you this, when I was successfully following Weight Watchers, there was recipe I tried with elbow macaroni and lean hamburger, and tomatoes. I can’t remember exactly, I guess it was sort of a diet beefaroni (a non-diet version my Mom used to make from scratch!), but I recall eating the entire 6 portion casserole in less than two days. After that, I realized that I could no longer have pasta in my house. If I chose to eat it, I would have to order it at a restaurant, and not bring home ANY leftovers.

Rice: Well, it’s pretty much the same thing with rice that it is with pasta. I thought going from white rice to brown rice would make it less…palatable, but not so. See, I am not a fan of plain rice, white or brown. But I love, love, love any kind of flavored rice. My mom used to make two varieties of fried rice, which were not really “fried rice” but they sure were good, and come to find out VERY fattening as well. She also made Spanish rice, which I also adore. Now I make a garlic brown rice which is pretty tasty, but whenever I make it, I want to eat the entire pot of it. So, needless to say, I don’t make it much anymore.

Mashed Potatoes: I don’t know, doesn’t this sort of fall under the French fries category? While they come from my same beloved potato, I still see them as totally different dishes. There’s something amazing comforting in mashed potatoes. And much to my husband’s surprise, I am more than happy to eat mashed potatoes with absolutely nothing else. He, on the other hand, will ONLY eat mashed potatoes if accompanied by gravy. In fact, I kinda think he pretty much uses the mashed potatoes as a vessel in which to contain his gravy. Personally, I can’t stand gravy. I find it nauseating. I think gravy may be, perhaps, the only fattening food I find distasteful.

Pizza: Seriously, what more is there to say besides…pizza. The warm, crust, the melted cheese, the sauce, and the toppings of your choice. My ideal pizza is pepperoni and onion. But my husband doesn’t care for that, so we never have it. I pretty much like a pizza with a lot of toppings, and I am perfectly happy for those toppings to be all veggie. Despite my adoration for all carby things, I still do like my veggies.

And lastly….ice cream, how do love thee, let me count the ways. I have had a lifelong romance with ice cream. While it’s not a relative of my bready, potato-y, carby other loves, it still ranks right up there with them. I like desserts. Truthfully, I like to bake them more than I like to eat them, but I do like them. Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t kick a chocolate mousse layer cake out of bed, but I would always opt for ice cream over cake or cookies. I’m pretty sure it’s a family addiction. I remember Sunday drives with my family. These drives were ALWAYS a quest for the best ice cream places in the greater suburban Boston area. This was led by my Dad. If he had his way, he would have eaten ice cream every day of his life. Hell, he would have probably been happy to eat it at every meal too! But I remember the hour long drives in the country to try out his latest homemade ice cream stand find. We had lots of local chain ice cream as well, but I know he was happiest when he found one of those perfect homemade ice cream stands.

And thus, my life long love affair with ice cream began. Both my sisters are the same way. I even recall one of my sisters telling me about vivid dreams she had about the ice cream going down her throat. You know, I have a vivid memory as well. I was in the fourth grade, and we had an assignment to write a paragraph describing ourselves as an inanimate object. I wrote about being an ice cream cone, and I was melting. That was the very moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. Somehow, it just doesn’t surprise me that my ultimate career goal in life is intertwined with food, and a trigger food no less!

Ok, now it’s your turn, tell me what your trigger food is. And any other information about said food that you wish to share!